Clearly bored, the Scottish Football Association decide they fancy a chat with Robbie Neilson about a very poor referee

It seems the fragile egg-shell egos within the corridors of Hampden still show no sign of developing a backbone.

Yesterday, Hearts manager Robbie Neilson received a notice of complaint regarding his comments on referee Willie Collum's performance when he officiated the Jambos' match at Hamilton Accies.

Collum made a decision that clearly had a huge effect on the game.

With 15 minutes to go and Hearts 2-1 up, full-back Callum Paterson upended an Accies player with a foul.

A yellow-card offence you would have thought only for Collum to flash a straight red.

Down to 10 men, Hearts duly paid the price with the loss of two late goals as a winning position turned into a defeat.

The club appealed the red card and the SFA, having a rare moment of common sense, agreed with Hearts that their referee had made an incorrect call and down-graded Paterson's foul to a yellow card.

However, their next course of action has had many scratching their heads in bemusement.

Instead of having a word with their official or even putting him on a 'refresher' course - given that this is not the first time Collum has been involved in a controversial decision that has been shown to be incorrect on his part - the SFA decided to throw the book at Neilson.

Why? Well here's what the Hearts manager said after the game in question:

“Every game we get a referee, we look at the stats and what way they referee the game. In certain games, certain referees will make decisions that another referee wouldn’t make.

“This game, with the officials we were getting, we knew there was a high probability of a man being sent off and it’s happened again.

"We tried to train with 10 men but we didn’t get our gameplan going as when it happened, with who came off, it made it difficult for us.”

A few days later, Neilson clarified his comments adding:

“The statistics back me up. I didn’t question any integrity, I didn’t comment on a performance.

“The statistics are there for everyone to see if you do your homework on it. They basically asked me about my comments about training.

“If they want me to justify all my training then I’ll send it all through to them."

Then yesterday, the SFA decided to haul him in for a hearing due to be staged on October 1st. Hearts have signalled their intention to appeal.

So, why are Hearts slightly peeved at this (best described as) petty action from the SFA?

Examine Neilson's comments again. 'Bias'? Nowhere does he say that Collum deliberately gave decisions against his team.

'Incompetence'? The fact that the SFA themselves overruled Collum's controversial red card suggests that they thought, that with this particular incident, their official had shown a degree of 'incompetence'.

So are they going to charge themselves?.

Some may point to Neilson's comments about referee stats as being 'over the mark'.

Well let's have a look. The below is taken from STV's website which shows a chart of the amount of red cards dished out by Scottish referees from the start of the 2013-14 season to September 11, 2015.

See if you can spot the referee whose red card count stands out:

Willie Collum likes a red card doesn't he?

Compared with his colleagues, his statistics are alarming and shows that someone clearly has issues with regard to how he performs in his role.

A former employee of the SFA, Mark Wotte - who had been their Director of Football Performance - posted on Twitter last night that Neilson was entitled to prepare his team for a scenario where they might be reduced to 10 men in a game. He said:

"Robbie Neilson practising 10 v 11 is something every coach should do during the week as part of match preparation."

When covering Glasgow Warriors rugby club for The Glaswegian newspaper, the then head coach, Sean Lineen, often comment (on the record) that he prepared his team to 'adapt' to certain referees.

If a referee was fussy with penalising at the scrum, Lineen said he would tailor his side's gameplan to ensure that Glasgow didn't fall foul of the fussy whistler in question.

He was never pulled up for such comments. Other rugby coaches would say the same thing as well and not be hauled in by that game's beaks.

Maybe because common sense is actually applied by rugby's authorities in comparison to football's?

Returning to Neilson, the statistics and the SFA overruling Collum's decision clearly highlight that this particular official is not performing as well as his colleagues.

Yet remarkably, nothing is done to resolve this with Collum himself. From an outsider's perspective, it seems the official should be placed in a retraining programme to curb his apparent eagerness (check the above stats) to produce a red card when a yellow- or no card at all - would be necessary.

Unless Neilson has 'libelled' Collum - which he hasn't - then there should be no case to answer.

Collum though, should be answering one but he won't. The SFA tend to convey the impression of turning a blind eye when one of their own makes a major cock-up.

So instead, they'll waste Neilson's time in order to do a bit of 'muscle-flexing' towards an uppity club manager.

While neglecting the real problem at hand.

Because one gets the feeling Collum will not be content with a meagre 24 red cards to his name.

John

17/9/2015 12:42:09 am

Matt, I'm certain that the case will be on the basis of guilty until proven innocent. That is what the SFA do in so many cases because they do not have valid/proveable standards of proof nor any evidence gathering worth the name.

On the "balance of probabilities" standard which is what they use, then they will find him guilty and walk out the room.

These are the same people who rushed to endorse those taking over a senior Scottish club, the same people who are now up on organized crime and fraud charges.

Sadly, egos with no backbone as well as no tough shell.

Steven Kilgour

17/9/2015 07:19:22 am

Excellent article. The SFA need disbanded. One of the most corrupt self preserving organisations in world football

Jim

17/9/2015 01:08:55 pm

Interesting article but as in all research there's an issue with statistics and how we use them. It's correct that said referee has 24 red cards to his name over the period, but he's refereed many more matches compared to the others (except Craig Thomson). Using info from http://www.statbunker.com/competitions/RefereeYellowCards?comp_id=491 you find that he's well down the list of average cards issued but totally at odds with Craig Thomson who has issued less cards from roughly the equivalent number of matches, perhaps that's where the argument should be directed.

william melvin

19/9/2015 01:20:26 pm

Matt,how you can justify your stance in berating one of the top whistlers in World Football is beyond the pale.The reason Mr Gollum(no mistake in the surname btw)has accrued so many red cards is that unlike other referees,who are mere mortals,the bold Willie has eyes in the back of his head so he is able to see things other officials miss.While on holiday in Australia,I seem to remember taking in a Celtic v Rangers game(I think in 2010) where he sent off a Celtic player while he had his back to the play.God help anyone who tries to backstab him,he'll see them coming a mile off ;<)